It has been customary, in an electronic device comprising a main body housing provided with a cover body, for operating the electronic device in good condition and for maintaining security, that the electronic device be designed to make certain actions after the cover body is fully closed or attached. For this reason, there have been presented various technologies for detecting the opened or closed condition or the attached condition of a cover body provided for an electronic device.
As such a technology, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H5(1993)-262011 discloses a cover-open switch that comprises a detection switch as means for detecting the opened or closed condition of a printer cover, the detection switch being provided on the main board of the printer. For the actuation of the switch, part of the upper plate of a cabinet of the printer is formed into a lever-like part having resiliency, and the leading end of the lever-like part is positioned facing directly the detection switch. In addition, a protrusion is provided on the back of the printer cover so that the protrusion pushes the lever-like part when the printer cover is closed.
The arrangement disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-262011, which is described above, is an effective technology for the open/close detection of only one cover body. However, for a case where an electronic device is provided with a plurality of cover bodies, this technology has a problem that one detection switch must be provided for each of the cover bodies to achieve the open/close detection of all the cover bodies. This also presents other related problems such as increased number of manufacturing processes and increased costs. Conventionally,